Carolina in my mind

Chapter 16

Carolina climbed into the passenger seat of the beat up old truck. Watching Merle head for the large armored truck with Rick in front of him worried her. She already offered to ride with Rick so that Merle could ride with Daryl. But he was insistent about wanting to 'watch' Rick. Carolina wasn't sure what that meant exactly. Maybe Merle just wanted to intimidate the man. Or get him alone so he could insult and threaten him without her and Daryl around to buffer the situation. All Carolina knew is, if they wanted to have a dick measuring competition she'd be happy to volunteer as the judge.

The small group already cleared out the rest of the health food store she and Merle visited a few days before. That was Merle's cover story for their little excursion. Everything they took from the store was piled up in the back of the large truck Rick was driving. Carolina wasn't totally clear on the details of the rest of the plan. But she knew Merle was planning to load the guns in the back of the truck she was in and stash them somewhere else. That's why they hotwired a second vehicle.

Carolina tapped a cigarette from her pack, flicking the wheel on her lighter before she turned to her left with a look of total shock on her face. Daryl was driving. Or more accurately, trying to drive. He was struggling with the gearshift in the old truck, grinding every gear the poor thing had. The sound of it made Carolina cringe, despite the hilarity of the situation. She wouldn't have thought it possible that a redneck like Daryl might not know how to operate every vehicle on the planet. But she supposed that driving an old manual was a skill you either picked up by chance or not at all. She only knew how because her brother liked to tinker with old cars. And when he got to drinking, he would make her drive him around in them.

"You're gonna burn up the damn clutch," Carolina told Daryl, stifling a giggle.

"Like you could do any betta," Daryl huffed, grinding the gearshift harder. Carolina clamped her cigarette between her teeth, freeing her right hand so she could reach over and place it on top of Daryl's. He allowed her to guide the movements of his hand, more out of curiosity than anything else. When the truck immediately popped into gear, the corners of his mouth curled up into a tight smile.

"I'll be damned," he grumbled. Daryl jerked up on the emergency brake before he added, "...yer drivin'."

Carolina took a drag off her smoke, shifting nervously when she saw Daryl scooting across the bench seat in her direction. He grabbed her arm and pulled her slightly towards him, indicating he meant for her to switch seats with him. She turned, thinking it would be easier to just get out of the truck and walk around it to climb behind the wheel. But one look at the dead corpses shuffling towards them changed her mind in a hurry. Carolina braced the hand that was holding her lit smoke against the dash, lifting her butt off the seat and trying to move across the truck without putting too much of her weight on Daryl. He was halfway across, one of his legs on either side of the gearshift when her boot slipped against the threadbare floor mat on the old truck. Carolina plunked down hard onto Daryl's lap, cringing when she heard the breath grunt out of him.

"Fuck," she huffed. "Sorry."

Carolina's foot was sliding against the floor and she was trying her best not to drop her lit smoke. She attempted to preserve whatever little dignity she had left as she maneuvered herself the rest of the way across the truck interior. But she was struggling, the one foot that was slipping across the floor was at an awkward angle. She sucked in her breath when she felt Daryl's hands on her hips. He gripped her, getting a healthy palmful of her ass as he lifted and gently slid her the rest of the way across the space. She ended up sitting sideways on the seat next to him with her long legs still stretched out across his lap. A combination of embarrassment and desire was making the heat rise in her cheeks as she tried to pull her legs up over the gearshift and off Daryl. The feeling of his muscular thighs under her ass and his hands on her hips had the heat pooling between her legs. He was back to wearing his own shirt instead of the one he borrowed from Merle. Which meant his chiseled arms were on full display. Carolina righted herself in the driver's seat and took a long drag of her smoke, blowing it out the window as she forced herself to focus on driving the stupid truck.

A few minutes later, they were cruising down the road behind the large armored truck Rick was driving. The windows were down and the wind was whipping Carolina's long blonde ponytail around. Daryl was sucking on one of her cigarettes as he poked through a travel case full of old cassette tapes that he found stuffed under the seat. Carolina reached over, grabbed a tape at random. She flipped the case open and stuffed the tape into the tape deck, turning up the volume up to near blasting before she even knew what was about to play.

"Hey!," Daryl squawked. "I was still lookin'." Carolina laughed. She wasn't particular about what sort of music she listened to. She just wanted to hear something besides the rumble of the old truck engine.

"Driver picks the music and shotgun shuts his piehole," she teased, repeating the phrase she'd heard her father and mother say to each other at least a hundred times back when they were still together.

Daryl shrugged and ceased his complaints when AC/DC started blaring through the speakers. Carolina tapped her fingers on the wheel as she drove. The song wasn't familiar enough for her to know all the lyrics. But she made sure to sing along at the top of her lungs to all the parts that she did know. She snuck a sideways peek at Daryl, making sure that he wasn't getting too annoyed with her off key serenade. And she laughed when she saw his arm resting on the open window frame, his thumb tapping along to the music like he was enjoying himself just as much as she was. They made it through almost one whole side of the tape before the truck in front of them began to slow down. Daryl leaned forward, twisting the volume knob to cut the music off.

Their footsteps echoed in the empty room. From watching the show, Carolina knew they weren't going to find the arsenal Rick was looking for. Not at the police station anyway. Because Morgan already cleared it out. She tried her best to look surprised. And while that was fake, her concern was real. Because the way Merle was eyeing Rick like he might shoot him at any moment was putting everyone on edge.

"I still know a few places in town where we can find some guns," Rick offered.

"As many guns as were in this room?," Merle asked. Rick shook his head, trying his best not to react at the way Merle kept moving into his personal space. "I'm not riskin' my fuckin' neck fer some under the counter gas station shotgun bullshit."

Carolina glanced between the two men. Rick, especially season three Rick, wasn't exactly her favorite person. But she couldn't help but feel sympathy for the man. It wasn't his fault that the guns were gone before they got here. Rick couldn't have known. And on top of his conflict with Merle, he was also dealing with a lot of personal shit. Being reduced from the unquestioned leader of a small group to just an unnamed member of another was probably demoralizing. And if that wasn't enough, his wife just gave birth to his best friend's baby.

"We came all this way," Carolina said, tugging on the back of Merle's shirt to keep him from pressing further into Rick's face. "We might as well get something to show for it."

Merle cursed a few times under his breath before he jerked his shirt out of her grasp and stomped from the room. With his brother momentarily gone, Daryl must have felt safe to show Rick some allegiance. Because he placed his hand on Rick's shoulder and gave him an apologetic look.

"Let's get this over with," Carolina suggested, offering Rick and Daryl a shrug before she followed Merle out the door.

The small group didn't make it far before they saw a walker. The creature was impaled on what appeared to be a trap set up to catch the dead. A bunch of pointed poles were attached together with a live trap hanging in the center. The cries of the poor animal inside the trap were drawing the walkers in. Several more traps were set up in the area, each of them with a few of the dead stuck to them.

Daryl fired his bow, hitting the walker in the head. When he pressed forward to retrieve his bolt, Carolina shrugged off her backpack and carefully wriggled between the sharpened poles, lifting the metal trap off the chain it was dangling from. There was a juvenile racoon inside the metal cage. The poor thing had to be dehydrated. But it still had enough fight left in it to shrink back against the other end of the cage and hiss at her.

"Was all this shit here the last time you were here?," Daryl asked, gesturing towards the rather elaborate set up of traps and live bait. Rick shook his head.

"No," he admitted. "...and whoever did this has gotta be hanging around somewhere. There's no way those animals could live in those cages longer than a few days."

Carolina set the cage down and unlatched the door. She tried encouraging the small raccoon to come towards her. But it just squished itself tighter against the other end of the cage, looking at her with wide frightened eyes. She decided to switch tactics. Standing up, she skirted around to the other side of the cage and kicked it with the toe of her boot. The small raccoon shot out through the open cage door like a rocket, heading straight for Merle. He cursed up a storm, jerking away from the animal. It hissed at him as it continued on its way.

"Goddamnit woman!," Merle huffed. "What the fuck are ya doin'?" Ignoring him completely, Carolina headed for the next circular formation of pointed stakes. "Leave that shit alone!," Merle ordered. She flipped her middle finger up at him before she swung her crowbar and smashed in the head of the closest walker. Carolina clobbered the next one and began weaving herself between the sharpened poles and reaching for the cage that held a large angry looking opossum. "Yer gonna get fuckin' bit!," Merle added, his irritation with her clearly increasing.

"I've got 'er," Daryl said, inserting himself into the situation before it could escalate any further. Merle snorted, rolling his eyes at Carolina's idiot behavior before he turned his back and continued past the last of the walker traps.

With a little help from Daryl, Carolina managed to release the opossum and what another animal that she thought might be a groundhog. The last cage had a kitten inside it. The poor little thing was crying and mewling. Daryl was standing slightly behind her, keeping watch as Carolina reached for the cage. Since he was busy looking out for walkers and checking out her ass as she leaned forward to grab the cage, Daryl didn't see the wires wrapped around the chain it was hanging from until it was too late.

"Carolina! Stop!"

Carolina's hand was already closing down around the chain when she heard Daryl's warning. She felt the intense shocking pain shoot up her arm. As she jerked her hand back, she felt her body go stiff. She wasn't knocked unconscious. But she was rendered temporarily immobile. She was expecting to feel her body hit the hard pavement under her feet. But Daryl caught her, lowering her carefully to the ground. She could hear his panicked cursing as he pressed his fingers against her throat, feeling for a pulse. Carolina tried to speak. But she was still stunned from the electric shock she just received. When she tried to lift her hand, her fingers only twitched against the pavement. Her eyes were shut. But she could feel Daryl tapping his hand against the side of her face, trying to wake her up.

"Carolina!," he urged. "Wake up. Oh fuck. Oh shit. Please be okay!"

The next thing she felt was Daryl's hand brushing the hair back off her face. And then his mouth in hers, blowing air from his lungs into hers. She wasn't having trouble breathing. But she guessed her breath must have been shallow enough that it didn't look like she was breathing. Either that or Daryl was just panicking and doing anything he could think of to help her. When he put his lips against hers for a second time she could feel the tickle of his facial hair against her skin. And when Daryl lifted his face away from hers, she was finally able to blink her eyes open.

"Holy fuck," he cursed. "Are you okay?"

"No," Carolina croaked, shaking her head. "...but you should kiss me again, I think it's helping."

Daryl sat back on his heels, his body shaking with a small bout of silent laughter as he breathed a very large sigh of relief. Carolina looked up at him as the control over her limbs slowly returned. His hooded eyes were as blue as the sky behind his head. Daryl caught her dreamy gaze and held it, the atmosphere around them suddenly feeling like it was charged with more than just the electricity that just knocked her on her ass.

Daryl's body jerked, immediately tensing when he heard the sound of gunfire coming from the direction that Rick and Merle went. He jumped to his feet, pulling Carolina up behind him.

"Stay close and stay behind me," he said. Carolina nodded, grabbing her pack and threading her arms through the straps as they hurried down the road. Her body still felt a little shaky. But she wasn't as unsteady on her feet as she thought she might be. She guessed the adrenaline flowing through her was probably helping with that.

Daryl stopped short at the corner of a building. There was more gunfire, closer now than it was before. Carolina edged in closer to Daryl. Her hand fisted into the back of his leather vest. And she peeked around the side of the building just in time to see Merle shoot a man that was standing on a nearby rooftop. The man was wearing body armor. But Merle hit him in the throat, sending blood splashing out around him. The man stumbled, dropping his gun before he fell forward off the rooftop. His body spun in the air, seeming to move in slow motion before he splattered on the ground like a bug on a windshield.

Carolina's eyes went wide. This can't be happening, she thought. It can't. This wasn't supposed to happen. But despite her absolute shock and disbelief, the evidence was smashed on the pavement on the other side of the street. Merle just killed Morgan.